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They Still Leave
Children on the Move
Look Heavenward
January 2019
Child Needing Shelter BY BILL KNOTT
W INDIA
About the Cover Philip Sargunam and Rita Chand model cross-generational engagement in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, India. Philip is a father of two and dedicates much of his spare time to witnessing about his faith among the members of his community. Rita is an eleventh grader in the local Adventist school and is active in Pathfinders. She hopes one day to follow in the footsteps of the Great Physician. Photo credit: Eric Johnston
Focus 10 Children on the Move 12 Refugees in Europe 14 Taking the Road Less Traveled 24 Refugees in Lebanon The Word 26 Bible Questions Answered My Church 16 Global View 19 Millennial Voices 20 What We Believe 23 Spirit of Prophecy Living Faith
e are on the other side of the season when most Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. Perhaps it is the time to tell the story that follows all the warm and friendly scenes. In my imagination, I see a picture from an old Bible story book of Joseph and Mary and the Child leaving by the back door of their house, even as the king’s soldiers are beginning to pound on the front door. Perhaps it wasn’t so close as that. Perhaps these three special persons, hardly yet a family, had traveled some miles beyond the town before the awful cry began to rise up in the night. Though they missed the tragedy in Bethlehem, they certainly didn’t miss the sorrow, for which of us as parents wouldn’t feel a terrible dread if we were commanded at a moment’s notice to take our little ones and run for our lives? Though we are fond of saying that all the world loves a baby, let’s remember that before this baby was many days or months old, He was already despised and rejected, a Child of sorrows, and oh, so acquainted with grief. As the apostle John reminds us, “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:11, KJV). There was no room for His mother in the inn, and there was no room for Him in the whole land. And so to a heathen, foreign land this precious Child had to flee for His life. This is the other side of the Christmas story, the darker side. It is perhaps the Bible’s antidote to all those fuzzy notions of worldwide peace and harmony that we entertain at the end of each year. All that evil could do to make His birth and His life miserable was done. Every circumstance that could be arranged to make his origin scandalous was arranged. Every instrument of terror that could be raised to threaten this Child was raised. Indeed, when we see all that evil had arrayed against Him, it’s all the more remarkable that this Lord of ours taught us a gospel of freedom and trust and confidence and peace. Yes, above all else, this Child was certainly at risk. And sadly, we know today that He was not the last child to be at risk—that hundreds and even hundreds of thousands of little ones today are part of a great and frightful flight from fear and pain and war and famine. As you read the special collection of articles focusing on the plight of refugees in this edition of Adventist World, pray for the eyes to see in those Christ calls “His little ones” the face of Him who still seeks our love, our comfort, and our shelter.
27 Health and Wellness 28 May I Tell You a Story? 30 Growing Faith—Children’s Pages We believe in the power of prayer, and we welcome prayer requests that can be shared at our weekly staff worship every Wednesday morning. Send your requests to prayer@adventistworld.org, and pray for us as we work together to advance God’s kingdom.
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News Moment
Buildings in Palu, Indonesia, that once stood as towering edifices are left unrecognizable after being struck by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake and an 18-foot tsunami. Rescue teams and emergency relief agencies like the Adventist Development and Relief Agency responded to help survivors. Photo: Ralfie Maringka/ADRA Indonesia
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News in Brief
“If global society is serious about reaching sustainable development goals before 2030, then religious leaders are among those who are going to bring about the desired change.” —Jonathan Duffy, president of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), challenging 25 ADRA Europe leaders gathered for their annual meeting with the reality that more than 85 percent of the global population is affiliated with some form of religious organization. Duffy spoke about the theology of compassion, including recent global trends and the role of faith-based organizations in development and humanitarian aid.
2,000 The number of Chilean Adventist young people who attended that nation’s Adventist Youth Congress held in seven cities simultaneously. As part of youth congress activities, attendees reached out to local communities with acts of service. Groups that were spread out across the country distributed boxed lunches, gave out hugs, organized children’s programs for families in need, cleaned playgrounds, and gave out books.
Reconciliation Leads to Mass Ordination Service in Hungary Two recent mass ordination services will see a further step in the reunification of two branches of the Adventist Church in Hungary. The two groups divided more than 40 years ago, principally over issues of government control during the then-Communist regime. In recent years the two groups, the official Adventist Church and the KERAK group, have spent considerable time actively listening to each other, seeking forgiveness for past mistakes, and building understanding. In 2015 they signed a joint declaration following a series of consultations that began in 2011.
“Worldview is the software that runs our lives, a map Global Outreach Possibilities: Number of Religiously Unaffiliated that orients People Around the World our life in the world.” Source: Pew Research Center, Global Religious Landscape
Europe 134,820,000
North America 59,040,000
Middle East-North Africa 2,100,000 Asia-Pacific 858,580,000 Latin America-Caribbean 45,390,000 Sub-Saharan Africa 26,580,000
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—Kevin J. Vanhoozer, research professor of systematic theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School addressing attendees at the “Transforming Worldviews: Biblical Faithfulness in a Pluralistic Age” symposium held at Andrews University. Organized by the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, the event aimed to consider and propose sound responses to questions dealing with the relationship between current worldviews and Christianity, specifically as related to mission.
News in Brief
“At first, I thought 55,000 it was a foreign radio, since I had never heard those songs before and the message was very good.� —Guinea-Bissau native Nicolas Gomes on his first encounter with a Novo Tempo radio station operated by the Adventist Church in the West African nation. Gomes listened to an evangelistic series broadcast on the station and became the first person baptized in Guinea-Bissau as a result of radio outreach.
The number of people surveyed by Adventist Health Study-2 researchers at Loma Linda University regarding diabetes. Subjects were followed for an average of 5.3 years, and none had diabetes when the study began. The study revealed that eating eggs is not associated with an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, but eating meat is. Among participants who ate both eggs and meat, obesity and meat consumption were the large risk factors associated with developing type 2 diabetes, the study identified.
Thirteen The number of Avondale College of Higher Education students who attended a United Nations (UN)organized University Scholars Leadership Symposium in Thailand. More than 1,000 delegates from 300 universities in almost 90 countries gathered in Bangkok. The UN leadership symposium helps students develop leadership and life skills to benefit the world around them. It provides opportunities for them to learn from professional trainers, life coaches, and humanitarian workers; network with other students; and serve the local community. Photo: Adventist Record AdventistWorld.org January 2019
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News in Depth
Global Healthcare Conference Shares Leadership and Governance Education
Event draws hundreds of healthcare leaders from 44 countries.
By Larry Becker, Loma Linda University Health News
More than 300 Seventh-day Adventist health-care leaders from 44 countries attended the eighth Global Healthcare Conference, one of Loma Linda University Health’s ongoing international initiatives that support the development of the church’s health-care institutions in developing countries around the world. Held October 18 to 21, 2018, in Loma Linda, California, United States, the theme focused on leadership, governance, and management issues faced by health-care organizations around the world. Conference attendees participated in a variety of interactive plenary sessions and breakout workshops intended to increase their knowledge of the various roles and accountabilities for which health-care institutional leaders are responsible. The weekend also provided a venue for networking and collaboration among institutional leaders and
encouraged conversations focusing on practical challenges they face, organizers said. “How do these organizations become more effective and purposeful in sharing the gospel of Christ with this world?” said Loma Linda University Health president Richard H. Hart in his opening keynote address. “Too often we get caught in the struggle for survival rather than becoming what God intends for these hospitals and clinics to become. Our goal is to help all of these institutions grow and become stronger.” Conference workshops highlighted many of Loma Linda University Health’s top leadership team sharing information from their areas of expertise. The Seventh-day Adventist Church operates 175 hospitals and 450 clinics worldwide. “I’m often asked why Loma Linda University Health struggles to help support these international
LLUH president Richard Hart welcomes delegates to the 2018 Global Healthcare Conference. More than 300 health-care leaders from a number of countries attended the event. Photo: Loma Linda University Health News 6
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institutions,” Hart said. “One answer is found through the many mothers, children, and families whose lives are saved and made better every day at these hospitals,” he explained. “There is also a significant impact on the Loma Linda University Health community,” Hart added. “If we didn’t take advantage of these opportunities to live out our dreams of compassion and caring for others, we would be the less for it. These service opportunities shape the culture of Loma Linda, making it a better place.” The first Global Healthcare Conference took place in 2010 in Honduras and focused primarily on the specific needs of health-care leaders in Latin America. The conference has been held annually since 2012. In even-numbered years the conference takes place in Loma Linda. Regional conferences take place in odd-numbered years, with previous events having taken place in the Dominican Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, and Zambia. The 2016 conference focused on human resources issues and the challenges of staffing international institutions that face limited financial and social resources. Hospital leaders from India and Belize reported that significant advances have taken place in their institution’s human resources efforts thanks to information learned two years earlier. Collaborating organizations for this year’s conference included Adventist Health International, the Consortium of Adventist Medical Education Leaders, the Health Ministries and Education departments of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, and Loma Linda University Health’s Global Health Institute.
News in Depth
A Division in Search of Accountable, Motivated, and Productive Leaders
South Pacific region focuses on intentional leader development.
By Adventist Record and Adventist Review
More than 50 Adventist Church leaders from across the South Pacific recently met to discuss a leadership development strategy for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific Division (SPD) church region. Held on September 11, 2018, at the SPD offices in Wahroonga, New South Wales, Australia, the meeting was attended by leaders from institutions in the region, including Avondale College of Higher Education, Papua New Guinea’s Pacific Adventist University, Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing, and the Adventist Church in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and the Trans-Pacific. Organizers reported that the meeting was an integral step in creating systems across the church workforce that support, develop, and challenge leaders to achieve the Adventist Church vision and mission. “It’s critical to ensure that the church remains relevant in society by ensuring our leaders have the competence, knowledge, experience, and agility to lead across changing and diverse environments,” said Dean Banks, SPD Leadership and Personal Development manager. “We have to ensure that we also focus on identifying a large group of future leaders who are equipped to lead as positions become vacant.” Attendees were presented with the results of a survey completed by more than 200 leaders across the SPD, which looked at current support systems in place for development. From the survey results several key areas of focus were identified, including building a system to identify and develop future
South Pacific Division (SPD) president Glenn Townend speaks to leaders on a special day of leadership development training at the church region headquarters in Wahroonga, New South Wales, Australia. Photo: Adventist Record
leaders, “effective mentoring,” and regular conversations with staff about their plans and development needs. The survey showed that leaders are confident in promoting the mission and vision of the church but require more systematic support around numerous people-management functions. “It was extremely valuable, particularly spending time with our board chair, [SPD president] Glenn Townend, and working through our leadership strategy,” said Jeanette Conley, Adventist HealthCare Medical and Clinical Governance executive. “Hearing from other groups about overall challenges and opportunities was also very insightful.” “We need to articulate what outstanding leadership looks like for the Seventh-day Adventist Church: how our leaders need to be thinking, behaving, and leading by example,” said Townend.
The SPD is also launching a monthly professional leadership development series, which started on November 1, 2018, and will run for 12 months. All leaders in SPD entities will be able to attend the workshops either in person or through live streaming, with video recordings available for Pacific Island leaders who work in remote areas. Topics to be covered in the workshops will address key focus areas, including communication in leadership, managing growth opportunities, and developing an effective mentoring culture. “We understand that our leaders are time-poor, with significant responsibilities,” Banks said. “But our message to them is that if they are prepared to learn, we will provide the opportunities. It’s part of valuing and empowering our staff so that they are accountable, motivated, and productive.” AdventistWorld.org January 2019
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News Focus Southern-Asia Pacific Division (SSD)
Adventists Strengthen Ties With Muslims in Southern Philippines Leaders from both the Zamboanga Peninsula Mission (ZPM), the Adventist Church’s administrative region in southwestern Mindanao, Philippines, and the Muslim-dominated islands in the area, met for the first-ever Adventist-Muslim Relations fellowship meal at ZPM’s headquarters in Ipil on September 20, 2018. Church leaders sought through the event to increase understanding between the two faiths in the region and provide opportunities for fellowship and respectful exchanges.
1,482,143 SSD membership as of November 1, 2018
125 The number of administrators, professors, faculty, students, and lay members who attended the recent AIIAS Asian Theological Society (AATS) forum, coming from a variety of institutions in the SSD territory. AATS exists to foster a healthy dialogue among members on issues relevant to biblical, theological, historical, and missiological studies in the Asian context. This year attendees discussed the challenges of religious pluralism in Asia.
“We need God’s power to overcome the bitterness and hurt that we sometimes carry our whole lives. We are just human beings without God’s transforming power. But with His power we can be a difference to the world.” —Saw Samuel, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Southern Asia-Pacific Division. Samuel made the comments about his relationship with his father, with whom he had had a broken relationship. Samuel recently reached out to his father, which resulted in a renewed relationship and in his father’s baptism at the age of 76.
“As a church, we must each do what we can to raise awareness so we can encourage acceptance, understanding, and love for these special children.” —Mahuya Roy, Bangladesh Adventist Union Mission special needs ministry coordinator. Adventist Church leaders and members in Bangladesh organized a region-wide campaign to celebrate World Autism Day. Students and staff from Adventist schools across the country, as well as leaders from the Bangladesh Adventist Union Mission, hosted parades, organized community discussions, and visited families of autistic children. (^-)
1969 The year in which the SULADS began work among the Manobo tribe of Mindanao in the Philippines. Sulad is the Manobo word for brother or sister, and is also an acronym for Socioeconomic Uplift, Literacy, Anthropological, and Developmental Services. SULADS International is a community-based nongovernmental organization (NGO) associated with the Adventist Church involved in development projects for native tribes in remote areas where they may not have access to education and health care. The organization, which now serves tribes in the Philippines, Thailand, Canada, and the United States, recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary.
Photo: Southern Asia-Pacific Division 8
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Perspective
By Gerald A. Klingbeil, associate editor, Adventist Review/Adventist World
Photo: Andrew Seaman
They Still Leave And we seem to take these numbers in stride.
During the recent Annual Council of the General Conference Executive Committee in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States, David Trim, director of the Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research (ASTR), presented the statistical annual report.1 Amid the many numbers describing the reality of a growing church, there was one number that hit me—again. Forty-two percent, Trim said, are leaving the church (and, apparently, these numbers do not include members lost because of death).2 We may overlook this startling number in the midst of other passionate discussions. We shouldn’t. Imagine right now your own congregation, whether large or small. You may belong to a small church in northern Germany with 50 members. Statistically, 20 of those 50 will leave your church over the next few years. Perhaps you belong to a vibrant large congregation in São Paulo, Brazil, or Nairobi, Kenya, boasting 2,000 members. Eight hundred of these members will vanish. Try to visualize 20 empty chairs. Imagine the large space of 800 empty chairs.
My heart hurts when I begin to envision this in my local congregation. Beyond reportable statistics, these numbers represent people who, for whatever reason, decide that Adventism is not for them anymore. Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t think that membership to the Seventh-day Adventist Church equals a straight path to heaven. God is still speaking to the hearts of those who walk out—and thankfully, many will return. What affected me, though, is the fact that we seem to just take these numbers in stride. Yes, we rejoice over the 1,352,931 new members who have joined the Adventist Church in 2017, but do we mourn the 563,205 who disappeared? The reasons for their disappearance can be manifold. Some were baptized but not really discipled—and they tend to disappear quickly, unless they are consciously integrated into a church community. Others are hurt by long-established members. Interpersonal conflict drives them out the back door of the church. As a father of teenagers and a young adult I worry particularly about the young adults we lose after graduation from university. Why do we struggle to help them find a spiritual home? More and more quality research is done by Adventist researchers
about these painful realities. We need that if we want to think strategically. But beyond research we need passion to tackle these challenges personally. If you want to be part of the solution, here are four practical suggestions that may help to stem the tide. First, know your fellow church members, especially the new ones, personally. Take an interest in their lives. Second, help your church leadership team to disciple new members. Making disciples is not the sole job of a pastor or an elder. The local church is ground zero for discipleship. Third, pay particular attention to the teenagers and young adults in your congregation. Know their names; speak to them; listen to their worries and concerns about the church; mentor them. Finally, start a prayer journal that focuses specifically on those who have left. Intercession is God’s means of getting us connected to the world around us. As you pray, listen to the gentle voice of the Spirit whispering to your heart creative ways of reconnecting to bring home those who have wandered away. We reported on this. See Desire Calixte, “Annual Council Secretary’s Report Highlights Mission,” Adventist World, (December 2018), pp. 8, 9. 2 You can read the report yourself at documents.adventistarchives. org/ArchivesPublications/2018%20Annual%20Council%20-%20 Statistical%20Report,%20David%20Trim.pdf. 1
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Focus
Children on the Move A growing crisis
V
incent was only 3 when his father left their home in Ghana to start a new life for his family in Italy. His mother followed when Vincent was 5, leaving the little boy and his younger brother to stay with their aunt. Vincent knew his parents were working hard to make a better future for them, and his aunt cared well for him and his brother; but Vincent still felt lonely. “My friends all had their parents, but mine were gone,” he said. His aunt took him and his brother to church services every week, but it wasn’t the Seventh-day Adventist Church that he had attended with his mom and dad. “I didn’t feel like I was in my home,” he said of missing his own Adventist community. When Vincent was 13, his father returned to Ghana and finally brought him to his new life in Palermo, on the Italian island of Sicily. His first months in Italy were exciting but also overwhelming. He didn’t speak the language, he didn’t know anyone outside of his family, and only one other child at his school shared his dark skin. It was an awkward time of transition. ONE OF MILLIONS
Vincent is one of 30 million children who currently live outside their country of birth.1 Another 17 million are internally displaced within their home countries (mostly because of violence and conflict).2 The phrase “children on the move” describes these children, all under 18, who have migrated or been forcibly displaced from the place they call home. In less-technical terms, many of the children on the move are migrants like Vincent, but others are refugees, survivors of disasters, victims of humanitarian crises, and so much more.
Most important, they are just children. TRANSITIONAL CHALLENGES
Every step that children on the move take on their journey can be harrowing and heartbreaking. It’s easy to forget that the journey doesn’t end when they arrive in a new place. This is a whole new beginning for them, and it’s a stage where, at best, children face uncertainty; but many also face the trauma of conflict in this new transitional time. To be clear, accepting migrants or people who have been displaced for any reason can be difficult for communities, even those who have the best of intentions. In places where resources such as food and clean water are already stretched thin, new arrivals are an added burden. Tension can also climb when new cultures and religions with which local people are unfamiliar, or even suspicious, are suddenly visible in their hometown. Dag Pontvik from the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in Italy says that everyone has a role in this critical stage with children on the move. “Integration is a very important key,” Pontvik says. “We have to go beyond offering physical support; we have to do more than offer food and shelter. We have to listen to children. We have to help them find belonging, offer them psychosocial support, and value their spiritual journey.” Although Vincent didn’t speak Italian when he came to Italy, he spoke English. He found comfort with teachers who spoke to him in the shared language. He even found acceptance by sharing the language with other classmates who wanted to learn from him. But he didn’t find belonging, or “home,” again until he rejoined his church through the Adventist community in Palermo. “God’s voice told me to go forward,” Vincent said. “He told me, ‘Go to church—there is something precious for you there.’ ” In addition to Sabbath services held in a building where both the Italian and Ghanaian congregations meet, Vincent did find something precious at church: a program organized by ADRA that changed his life. ADRA partners with the local Adventist church to provide an after-school program for migrants like Vincent and other kids in the community. This program helps them integrate through language lessons, supports them with their studies, and encourages them to enjoy their new home through activities such as Pathfinders. An after-school program sounds like a simple solution, and it is. But it’s also an affirming and safe environment where kids can make friends, share their stories with others like themselves, gain confidence, and find the social and spiritual support that is often missing from other migrant and refugee programs. Photos: ADRA International
Vincent, a refugee from Ghana now living in Italy, is one of 30 million children and youth who currently live outside their country of birth.
MOVING FORWARD AS A FAMILY
When Vincent’s younger brother finished school in Ghana, he joined the rest of the family, including a new little brother, in Palermo. The family was finally whole again and thriving in their new life. Now 16, Vincent’s past shyness is gone. His voice is strong and his smile is confident as he stands next to Pontvik and tells his story to a group of faith-based humanitarian and religious leaders at an event called Faith Action Forum for Children on the Move. His story is one of success, and on this warm October morning in Rome, he tells those in the room that he hopes he can help other children on the move have success stories of their own. Asked where he finds his strength, Vincent doesn’t pause before answering, “God.” And what would he tell other children on the move? “You can do it. Just go forward.” Pontvik talked to the group about the importance of empowering young people such as Vincent when they are in our communities. “Even those of us who work in this area can be guilty of stereotyping, or even just categorizing—seeing someone and first thinking, You are from Africa or you are from the Middle East and seeing the differences, when our first thought should be, You are a child of God.” To learn more, go to adra.org. UNICEF, IOM, UNHCR, EUROSTAT, and OECD, “A Call to Action: Protecting Children on the Move Starts with Better Data,” February 2018, data.unicef.org/resources/call-action-protecting-children-move-startsbetter-data/. 2 UNICEF, “Uprooted: The Growing Crisis for Refugee and Migrant Children,” 2017, www.unicef.org/ publications/index_92710.html. 1
Ashley Eisele is associate director of communications for ADRA International.
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Focus
Refugees in Europe The Christian approach
P
lease! Do not let us be victims of another genocide. Get us out of here!” Sheik Munir, the Yazidi community leader at the Petra Olympus refugee camp near the foothill of Mount Olympus in Greece, fervently urged local officials for help. Winter was approaching, and the site that had served as a refugee camp since spring provided only fragile tents unable to protect residents from the cold and the snow, which already had capped the mountains. About 1,200 people, including 500 children, had been waiting eight months to find a way to join their families in Germany. “My people have gone through more than 70 genocides,” Munir continued. “Last year we lived through another one in Iraq. It was horrible. As horrible as it was for us to travel by sea. Do not let us die here!” With political and military instability in the Middle East and North Africa, and drought and famine in Africa’s Sahel region, approximately 1.5 million people risked their lives in 2015 and 2016 to flee to Europe in search of safety and stability. They were forced to leave everything behind. They attempted to relocate in unfamiliar lands, which were often unfriendly to them. Europeans have now become attentive to refugee issues. For some, this is out of sympathy; others, however, fear their culture and way of life are being threatened.
THE REALITY OF NUMBERS
Statistics from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)1 indicate that the number of people forced to flee their homes as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, or human rights violations has risen dramatically since the Second World War. In 2017, 68.5 million people worldwide fled their homes, more than the entire population of France. Of these, 25.4 million are refugees, more than half of whom are under the age of 18. The largest slice, 40 million people, are internally displaced persons (IDPs), meaning people who did not leave their country but had to move to a different region. Three countries of origin contribute to almost half of the total number of refugees: Syria—6.3 million; Afghanistan—2.6 million; and South Sudan—2.4 million. About 85 percent of refugees are living in developing countries, with Turkey in the lead with 3.5 million people. When we look at the
ADRA Serbia workers teach refugee children how to plant vegetable seeds during a summer school in ADRA’s community center in Belgrade. ADRA provides much-needed assistance for both children and adults forced to flee their home countries.
number of refugees in proportion to the number of people in the host country, the most generous nation is Lebanon. With a population of 6 million, Lebanon is hosting 1 million refugees. Comparatively, all of Europe, excluding Turkey but including all countries outside of the European Union, has a total population of 741 million people and is hosting 2.4 million refugees. RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION
According to the United Nations, the term refugee applies to any person who “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”2 Religious persecution is one of the most prevalent reasons people flee their homelands. Religion, however, is often presented as a destabilizing factor for the host communities rather than a cause for refugee status. Most refugees are forced to leave because of armed conflicts. These conflicts, however, are often underscored by religious reasons and the lack of freedom of conscience. The conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, and Photos: ADRA Serbia
South Sudan—and more recently the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar— have a deep religious foundation. The example of the Yazidis cited earlier is a prime example of this situation. For centuries they have been persecuted and were victims of genocides because they hold different religious principles. A THREATENED EUROPE?
Instead of being seen as a cause of persecution, a refugee’s religion has long been viewed by many in Europe as a threat to the continent’s traditional Judeo-Christian matrix. Their fear is an invasion of different religions, customs, and cultures. The religious way of life of some refugees does indeed often clash with the traditions and habits of the hosting countries, so challenges arise. PEACEMAKERS
So what is the role of Christ’s followers when confronted with these circumstances? In Matthew 5:9 Jesus calls us to be peacemakers. Christians are to exercise this character trait when faced with the arrival of refugees within their borders, even if the refugees profess creeds different from their own. But more than tolerating one another’s creeds, we need to develop a spirit of solidarity that supports and advocates minority groups that have little or no social support. The Word of God is clear: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights
of all who are destitute” (Prov. 31:8).3 Communities receiving refugees should build bridges that encourage the learning of local languages and customs. Effective integration promotes peace and tolerance, and may allow access to the labor market. The order given to the people of Israel when they established their nation also serves us today: “You are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt” (Deut. 10:19). Presently Europe has a unique opportunity to demonstrate tolerance, solidarity, and respect for human dignity. As Christians we have an additional responsibility to demonstrate God’s love through acts of kindness and respect for those who have had to leave behind everything they own, searching for peace, security, and comfort for themselves and their families. Sheik Munir and his people did not spend the winter below Mount Olympus. By working collaboratively, ADRA, the United Nations, and the Greek government relocated the refugees. In time they received asylum in other European countries, eventually joining their families in Germany, where as a people they have found the peace and security they sought. Fortunately for this community, Europe knew how to live up to its Christian foundations. To view a video of ADRA’s refugee work in Belgrade, go to adra.org. rs/?lang=en. www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html Article 1 (A) (2) of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, www.refugeelegalaidinformation.org/1951-convention. 3 All Bible texts are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. 1 2
João Martins is executive director of ADRA Europe.
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Michael von Hörsten, a missionary medical doctor, poses with refugee children in Uganda.
emergency-room bus close to the shore where the refugees would land on their boats, and later in Athens by providing medical care to vulnerable refugee communities. In 2017 we partnered with ADRA Iraq to set up an ADRA field hospital east of the war-torn city of Mosul, providing care to camps of people fleeing the conflict with ISIS. The facility has seen more than 50,000 patients in the past year. Now we’re going to Uganda, where the refugees have suffered some of the most horrific human rights abuses and conflicts, and now live in desperate circumstances in vulnerable refugee communities. Courtesy of AdventHelp/ADRA
Focus
Taking the Road Less Traveled Medical doctors dedicate their careers to helping refugees.
W
hat do Greece, Iraq, and Uganda have in common? In recent years these countries, among others, have experienced an influx of refugees that has created a huge need of basic services for displaced people. AdventistHelp,1 a supporting ministry, and the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA)2 have partnered in all three of these regions to provide critical medical care. Refugee ministry is becoming a worldwide mission opportunity and changing the landscape for today’s missionaries. Michael von Hörsten and his 14
January 2019 AdventistWorld.org
older brother, Friedrich,3 both medical doctors, and Hilde and Leah Camacho, a Portuguese medical missionary couple, have pursued the road less traveled when it comes to their careers by providing medical services in refugee camps in all three of the aforementioned countries. Penny Brink, who lives in South Africa and is contracted to Adventist World as a writer and editor, talked to Michael about his experiences. Tell us about your refugee projects
AdventistHelp started in Greece on the island of Lesbos in 2015 in an
Why choose Uganda?
We were invited to Uganda by Charles Aguilar, the ADRA Uganda director, in 2017 to do an assessment for a possible field hospital similar to the one in Iraq. Uganda has the third-highest number of refugees in the world: 1.5 million. One of the biggest gaps in refugee response in the region is in health care. Why are people specifically seeking refuge in Uganda?
Uganda is a stable, peaceful country shouldered by South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo [DRC], two regions with some of the highest rates of ethnic violence in the world. Now with an uptick in violence in the DRC since December 2017, complicated by a food crisis and the additional burden of such infectious diseases as malaria and Ebola with minimal access to health care, thousands of civilians have had to flee into Uganda, seeking a place of safety. Describe the refugees’ living conditions.
Kyaka 2 Refugee Settlement is one of Uganda’s main receiving areas for new arrivals from eastern
Why this particular project?
ADRA has worked extensively with refugees in this region. Because of the pressure of incoming refugees on an already-strained health system, the need is huge and the potential impact enormous for an intervention like this. The planned ADRA hospital under phased construction will have 100 inpatient beds, an outpatient unit, an emergency room, and an operating theatre. Why do you do it?
It’s a privilege for us to be able to reach out to this vulnerable population, to provide them with quality health care and to help them find healing. To learn more, go to www.adventist help.org or Facebook at facebook.com/ AdventistHelp/. www.adventisthelp.org. adra.org Read more about the brothers at www.adventistreview.org/ church-news/story3402-adventist-doctor-describes-tears-andhope-at-epicenter-of-europe’s-migrant-crisis. 1 2 3
Courtesy of ARIM
DRC. Thousands have arrived in the past few months, many with just the clothes on their backs. Its current population is about 80,000. It’s expected to reach 100,000 within the next few months. Each family—comprising mostly women and children—is allocated a plot of land by the government to live on, and they build simple mud huts. It’s hard going. The nearest hospitals are hours away. If a child contracts severe malaria, chances are high that he or she will die in their hut. If a mother has a complicated labor, the risk of death is extremely high. Health services on the ground are minimal and totally overrun. There is very little food. Many of the children suffer from severe malnutrition.
Refugee and Immigrant Ministries in North America
Multiple refugee language groups celebrate a Refugee Family Thanksgiving Worship in Greensboro, North Carolina, in January 2018.
Caring for the stranger at our gates
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n its desire to take the gospel of God’s love to refugees, immigrants, asylum seekers, and other vulnerable foreign-born populations within its territory, in 2009 the North American Division (NAD) launched Adventist Refugee and Immigrant Ministries (ARIM). This rapidly growing ministry is part of the division’s Multilingual Ministries Department. ARIM’s mission is to coordinate, facilitate, and expand Adventist ministries to the 3 million refugees and other least-reached and least-established language groups in the NAD. To do this, ARIM focuses primarily on (1) church planting, (2) awareness and empowerment, (3) community engagement through volunteers, (4) resource development, and (5) Adventist education. This ministry has now grown to 156 congregations among 17 refugee language groups across the division. With increased awareness of refugees and our opportunity to reach them with the love of Jesus, many local churches, Adventist Community Services centers, conferences, union conferences, and ministries at every level of the church have taken creative steps to reach out to refugees. In connecting with Muslim refugees, ARIM collaborates closely with NAD Adventist Muslim Relations, led by Gabriela Phillips. “Families who seek refuge from war-torn countries—whatever their religion or country of birth—are children of God created in His image. They are our brothers and sisters, and we must provide them refuge,” says NAD president Daniel R. Jackson. “As a church, we should welcome them within the North American Division and provide them with the care, respect, and help they need.” Volunteers across the NAD have stepped out of their comfort zones and reached out to refugees fleeing conflict and persecution in their home countries, and have been blessed by the friendships formed. Hundreds of refugee children have been assisted in obtaining an Adventist education, and hundreds more need this transformational opportunity. ARIM’s key personnel are its church-planting consultants, who are native speakers of refugee languages. These consultants find displaced members who have come as refugees to North America and organize them into church plants, where they can be nurtured and serve the community. Consultants also develop resources, create networks, and plan events that train and empower the leaders and pastors of these congregations and connect them with others of like faith and languages across the division for mutual encouragement, fellowship, and training. To learn more, visit www.refugeeministries.org or facebook.com/ RefugeeImmigrantMinistries.
Terri Saelee is coordinator of Adventist Refugee and Immigrant Ministries in the North American Division.
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Global View
Misperceptions About the General Conference’s Compliance Document BY MARK A. FINLEY
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ave you ever noticed that sometimes honest people can view the same event differently? Their perceptions about what transpired vary greatly. It’s also possible that misperceptions repeated often enough can become reality in our minds. Since we are all human, this sometimes happens in the church. Misperceptions are running rampant on social media about the document “Regard for and Practice of General Conference Session and General Conference Executive Committee Actions,” recently voted at the 2018 Annual Council. Some have even made the exaggerated claim that the General Conference (GC) desires to control what happens at the local church level, and that no one is safe from its tentacles of control. The document has been called “papal,” “anti-Protestant,” and “unbiblical.” This, of course, is not only unfortunate, but not true. Let’s consider seven common misperceptions about the current discussion over the document voted by the General Conference Executive Committee at the 2018 Annual Council and compare these misperceptions with the facts of the document. MISPERCEPTION 1: The document is an overreach by the General Conference to centralize power. FACT: The document actually states, “Planning for and ensuring compliance shall initially be entrusted to the entity closest to the matter” (p. 1, line 25).
The intent of the document is to allow the entity closest to the issue of noncompliance to handle the matter. Rather than a centralization of power, it encourages the opposite. It urges all issues of policy noncompliance to be solved at 16
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the local level. If this is not possible, the next-highest level of church organization may become involved. For example, if a local church has an issue of noncompliance with a voted policy, the local conference has the responsibility to work with the church to resolve the issue. If a conference has a challenge with noncompliance that it cannot or will not solve, the union conference/ mission can become involved in working out a solution. This is true for each level of church organization. If there is noncompliance regarding a General Conference session or Executive Committee voted action that remains unresolved, GC representatives may become involved in discussions with the entity to resolve the issue. MISPERCEPTION 2: The document uses a nonbiblical method of coercion. FACT: The document does just the opposite. Here is what the document states: “Administrators dealing with any matter of noncompliance shall exercise Christian due process, which will include much prayer and dialogue” (p. 2, line 35).
The document is designed to be redemptive, not punitive. It provides for a process of dialogue, prayer, and counsel to determine how best to solve the matter of noncompliance. The purpose of the document is not to punish noncompliant entities, but to establish a process whereby issues of noncompliance can be resolved. It follows the scriptural pattern of reconciliation and resolution as outlined in Matthew 18. MISPERCEPTION 3: The document is a heavy-handed authoritarian approach to problem solving.
“Policies do not dictate what we believe, but they should govern the actions of church leaders. Church leaders have an ethical responsibility to abide by the decisions made jointly by the representatives of the world church.”
FACT: The document provides for tolerance. It allows administrators of the entity that is perceived to be out of compliance a 60-day period to further dialogue and offer solutions to the challenging situation (p. 2, line 14).
The due process provisions in the document encourage discussion and prayerful consideration on how to solve noncompliance issues. Rather than a heavy-handed, dictatorial mandate, the document assures a process of collaboration and seeks to find solutions to problems of noncompliance. Some may feel that 60 days is a short period of time to resolve complex issues. In fact, this time period provides specificity so that noncompliance does not go on endlessly without some resolution. A specific time frame fosters dialogue and facilitates problem solving. The proposed “warnings” and “reprimands” are designed to enable entities to think of the seriousness of noncompliance to voted actions of the world church and to encourage them to come back into harmony with the world church. Any warning, reprimand, or other consequences must be voted by the General Conference Executive Committee with worldwide representation. MISPERCEPTION 4: The final vote of authority regarding consequences rests in Silver Spring, Maryland, with the GC Administrative Committee. FACT: The document clearly states, “If, after the organization closest to the matter has been unable to resolve a compliance issue and the General Conference Compliance Review Committee has recommended consequences, only the General Conference Executive Committee and/or the General Conference in session has authority to implement the recommendation (p. 3, lines 27-30). MISPERCEPTION 5: This document changes the culture of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and inhibits freedom of conscience. FACT: When an individual chooses to go contrary to the voted policies of the corporate body, typically there are consequences. Policy does not dictate what an individual believes; it should, though, govern the actions of leaders.
The document voted at Annual Council does not change the culture of the Adventist Church. It preserves the integrity of the organizational structure and the voted actions of the worldwide body. What will change the culture of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is if votes of the General Conference in session and its Executive Committee are not respected. If each entity from the local church to local conferences, union conferences, and divisions does not respect the decisions of the corporate church, the church will be led into organizational chaos, fragmentation, disunity, and congregationalism. The issue before the church is whether it desires to remain as a united worldwide body, valuing the collective decisions of the General Conference in session and its Executive Committee, or whether it will become a loosely connected body of organizational entities. MISPERCEPTION 6: The General Conference does not have any entity to oversee its activities and actions. FACT: The General Conference is answerable to the GC Executive Committee. This is why regular reports are given during the Spring Meeting and Annual Council. In addition, the General Conference is regularly audited for financial compliance by the independent and well-respected auditing firm, Maner & Costerisan.
During the 2018 Spring Meeting representatives from Maner & Costerisan reported that the General Conference was in compliance with the General Conference Working Policy regarding financial matters. Also during the 2018 Spring Meeting, as part of the financial reports, GC Treasury presented the “Accountability for Use of Tithe” report. This, along with the report from Maner & Costerisan, can be read in the May 2018 GC Executive Committee Newsletter. MISPERCEPTION 7: The document is unbiblical. It places policy above Scripture and is therefore contrary to the Protestant Reformation in that it violates freedom of conscience. FACT: Church organization is a fundamental principle of New Testament teaching. The church is held together by the Holy Spirit through a common commitment to Christ, a shared belief in biblical teachings, a passion for mission, and a worldwide
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church organization. If any one of these is subtly undermined, the entire church is in danger.
Without church organization, congregationalism will run rampant. As in the days of the judges, “everyone will do right in their own eyes” (see Judges 17:6; 21:25). The policies of the church never dictate or supersede an individual’s conscience. Believers are free to follow the dictates of their conscience. There will be times when honest people see things differently; I have friends on both sides of the current debate. Although policies do not shape our conscience, they do govern our actions as leaders of God’s church. Policies are agreements about the way the church will operate. They determine how an international, global family will function. Church leaders have an ethical responsibility to abide by the decisions made jointly by representatives of the world church at a General Conference session. If the actions of a General Conference session or GC Executive Committee make little difference, our entire system of church governance is called into question. Policies are not unchangeable biblical teachings and should never be elevated above biblical truth. They are operating principles that delegates to a General Conference session or Executive Committee can
change, and at times have changed. If change to any policy passed by the General Conference in session or to Executive Committee actions is made, it should be made by the same body where it was voted. If a representative group of leaders wish to see a policy reexamined, they can make an appeal to the General Conference Executive Committee. WHERE THE BATTLE ISN’T
Misperceptions never serve us well. They lead us to operate from fear in a world of illusion. Worst of all, they deter us from the mission of the church to live and preach the gospel to fulfill the mission of Christ. Believing misperceptions causes us to fight where the battle isn’t rather than focusing our spiritual energies and attention on reaching lost people to prepare men and women for the coming of our Lord. May the living Christ so fill our hearts and guide our thinking that we focus on the thing that really matters: souls saved eternally for His kingdom.
Mark A. Finley is a well-known evangelist, author, and retired General Conference vice president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
“Christ changes
every heart
He owns.” When grace has lived a while in us, we wake one day to learn how much we’ve changed, how everything is different. We speak new kindness to the ones who mock us, or who irritate our peace. We listen well to those who never seemed worth hearing. We find our hearts have been enlarged, with room for those we feared or scorned. This is the sign of Jesus living in us, and yes, we never saw it coming.
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Christ changes every heart He owns, replacing stoniness with love. We get the double blessing of eternity and now—of seeing life renewed in us and all with whom we’re planted. His seed that grows in secret still does yield the sweetest fruit. So stay in grace. —Bill Knott If you would like to be blessed by GraceNotes each week, go to www.facebook.com/MoreGraceNotes/
Photo: Jakob Owens
Millennial Voices
Thanks, Andy T
he audience was mesmerised. Their eyes were fixed in breathless appreciation on the musicians at the front of the room as the pianist and the singer poured their souls into the music, voices blending in smooth harmonies. Unusually, it was not a concert hall that held the attentive crowd, but rather a simple living room. My boyfriend and I had been invited to this house concert by its host, Andy. Although the night’s featured singer had made several television and concert appearances, we hadn’t heard of her before. But we knew Andy, and we trusted him, so we decided to attend. People of all ages and backgrounds squeezed into an unassuming living room, drawn together by their love of music. We laughed and sighed together over the stories behind the songs as the artists explained the pieces written for an anti-bullying campaign or inspired by the singer’s autistic niece, who wanted people to really listen to her. We sang along, joyously out of tune, with well-known songs. Even though we were strangers, during the evening we bonded over our appreciation for the musicians. Talking with my boyfriend later, I was struck by how the night’s experience was a picture of what church community is—a group of people, coming together from all walks of life, drawn into each other’s company by their love for Jesus, and focused on something beautiful. We may meet as strangers, but we can bond over our shared love for God. “Besides, why did we go to the gig in the first place?” my boyfriend asked as we discussed the analogy. We didn’t go to the gig because we
knew the singer. We went because we knew Andy. And because we knew Andy, we were introduced to something that touched our hearts. Isn’t that often the same as how we encounter God? I know people who came into church community because of their friendship with someone who already knew Jesus. Young parents who made friends at a church-run toddler group and started attending Sabbath School or Messy Church. A family who became Adventists because over-thefence chats with their Adventist neighbors turned into Bible studies. A teenage student who brought her parents to the church that hosted her music school. Young adults who became interested in Christianity over coffee-shop conversations and by simply doing life with their friends who knew Jesus. I was reminded of the biblical story of Nathanael and Philip. When Philip told his friend that he had found the Messiah, “Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth,” Nathanael exclaimed, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” I imagine Philip smiled. “Come and see for yourself,” he said (see John 1:45, 46). Nathanael met Jesus because he knew Philip. As I reflected on this story, and on our experience at the living room gig, I thought: I want to become the kind of person who draws others to the Creator of music, love, and life itself. This year, will people meet Jesus because they know you?
Lynette Allcock, a graduate of Southern Adventist University, lives in Watford, United Kingdom, where she produces and presents for Adventist Radio London.
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What We Believe
Understanding the 1,260-year Prophecy A legal solution
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BY N I C H O L A S P. M I L L E R
he prophetic period of “times and times and the dividing of time� (Dan. 7:25, KJV), has been historically understood by Adventists as comprising a period of 1,260 years during the Middle Ages. Prior to the French Revolution, Christian thinkers gave a range of views about when the period started and ended. But with the rise of Napoleon, and the exile into captivity of the pope by French general Berthier, there was a rare moment of near prophetic unanimity among Protestant expositors, who declared that this period ended in A.D. 1798. It was a matter, then, of running the period backward to find the starting point, which would be A.D. 538.1 After the shock and clarity of the events of the 1790s subsided, however, some scholars could not see a decisive event in A.D. 538 that matched the clarity of a pope being exiled and dying in jail. Some thought that the beginning was signaled by the third horn of Daniel 7 being uprooted, which was the defeat of the Ostrogoths by Justinian’s general Belisarius in 538.
The trouble was that the decisive “defeat” appeared a little anticlimactic, as it involved the breaking of the Ostrogoth siege of Rome by Belisarius. The event was just one stage in an ongoing conflict that continued for at least two decades. The Ostrogoths regained Rome in the 540s, and needed to be dislodged again. The Ostrogoths were not fully defeated until about A.D. 553. So what made the 538 battle so much more prophetically significant and decisive than similar victories in the 540s and the final battle in 553?2 The lack of a clear answer has caused some expositors to argue that 538 has no inherent significance, and was merely chosen because of its convenient relationship to the decisive ending in 1798. This has caused some scholars, including some Adventists, to move away from viewing the 1,260-year prophecy as having a literal, historical application, and as being more of a symbolic number. This approach has also gained ground in relation to some other prophetic time periods, such as those found in the fifth and sixth trumpets of Revelation. In this article I maintain that rather than military events, we should consider the creation or dissolution of legal structures. This legal approach, I believe, provides a firmer basis for this, and perhaps other, prophetic time periods. TRADITIONAL ADVENTIST APPROACHES
As early Adventists adopted the prophecy as part of the historicist heritage, most prophetic expositors tied the timing of the beginning of the 1,260 years with military
Photo: William Krause
victories of Rome to the final uprooting of the three horns by the little horn of Daniel 7:8, 20, 24. This shows up in several written works, including Uriah Smith’s Daniel and the Revelation and The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary on the book of Daniel, among others. An important exception to this trend is Ellen White. In The Great Controversy, she simply wrote that in the sixth century “the bishop of Rome was declared to be the head over the entire church. Paganism had given place to the papacy. The dragon had given to the beast ‘his power, and his seat, and great authority.’ Rev. 13:2. And now began the 1260 years of papal oppression. . . . Dan. 7:25.”3 Here, Ellen White focuses on the moment of empowerment with legal authority. However, some Adventist scholars are starting to think of the 1,260 years in terms of general or even symbolic periods of time, and moving away from being overly concerned with specific starting and ending times. This move toward an idealistic or symbolic position regarding the time periods of Revelation begins to disconnect Revelation from actual history. This method would certainly be a very different approach to the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation than that expressed by our pioneers, or exhibited by Ellen White in The Great Controversy. A LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE 1,260 YEARS
A careful study of Daniel 7:24-26 and some related prophetic passages reveals that the decisive events of the terminal moments of the 1,260 years should be understood
primarily legally, rather than militarily. Once this legal framework is understood and given its due weight it becomes clearer how the 538 event relates to the 1798 event. In a nutshell, the Justinian Code, which was completed in 534, “enacted orthodox Christianity into law,” placed the pope as the formal head of Christendom, “ordered all Christian groups to submit to [his] authority,” and gave him civil power of life and death over heretics.4 This code, however, did not become legally promulgated and enacted on the ground until the siege of Rome was lifted in 538. Justinian’s general, Belisarius, had entered Rome unopposed at the end of 536, but shortly thereafter the Ostrogoths came and laid siege to Rome. After about a year the siege was broken, and Belisarius had control of Rome and its environs.5 It was then that the provisions of the code elevating the Papacy could actually be implemented by Belisarius beyond the borders of Rome itself. The Gothic Wars continued, with the Ostrogoths being finally driven out in 553.6 But these later battles and sieges did not nullify the papal-centered legal system that had been put into place in 538. Even when Rome fell again to the Goths, they did not control the Papacy, as at that time it was operating outside Rome. “After 538,” Adventist scholar Jean Zukowski observed, “the papacy never came back under the control of the Ostrogothic kings.”7 The papal system, placed at the head of Christendom and given the power of life and death over heretics by the Justinian Code, endured in the West for more than 1,000 years, being given a great boost in the
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Authority came to the Roman church through a combination of legal, ecclesiastical, and military events. legal revolutions of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, forming the legal scaffolding of many modern states.8 That is, until the secular revolutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, where the code and its religious character were explicitly rejected. These secular revolutions began with the French Revolution, which soon led to the capture and exile of the pope by Berthier in 1798. But again, more significant than the military/political event of the capture and exile was the replacement of the religious-centric Justinian Code by the secular Napoleonic Code. The secular code was implemented by the famous bill number 8 of February 15, 1798, where General Berthier declared Rome an independent republic and “in consequence, every other temporal authority emanating from the old government of the Pope, is suppressed, and it shall no more exercise any function.”9 I believe that this focus on the legal, rather than the military, is justified and even required by the biblical passages surrounding the 1,260-year period. While the uprooting of the three horns is certainly relevant and connected to the rise of the little horn, the biblical text does not emphasize military as being decisive in the timing of the 1,260-year prophecy. 22
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Rather, the key verse is Daniel 7:25, which says that the saints shall be “given into his hand for a time and times and half a time.” The key moment related to the time period is not something the little horn does to conquer or assert itself; rather the focus is on the time that the little horn is “given” certain authority and dominion. This would best be fulfilled by a legal act of another bestowing authority, which is precisely what the Justinian Code did. Thus authority came to the Roman church through a combination of legal, ecclesiastical, and military events. The Goths held Rome and Italy prior to 536 and the arrival of Belisarius. The pope, Silverius, had been chosen by the Gothic king, Theodahad. Justinian hand-picked a Roman deacon, Vigilius, to be pope. In 537, Belisarius sent Pope Silverius into exile, and eventual death, and put in place Vigilius. Pope Vigilius is the first pope with unquestioned loyalty to Justinian and his new code, which in 538 becomes meaningfully effective for the first time.10 There is a clear and parallel symmetry in the 1,260-year period starting with a pope being exiled and replaced with one hand-picked by the emperor under the auspices of a new legal code (the Justinian Code—one that elevates the Roman church to official, legal priority), and ending with a pope being exiled by an emperor and a religious code replaced by a secular rule (the Napoleonic Code, a secular system that rejects the idea of a special place for the church). CONCLUSION: A LEGAL FOCUS
The history of church and state relations is exceedingly helpful to an understanding of prophecy. The uprooting of three horns is a historical process over a period of time,
from the 470s to the 550s. But legal enactments can provide a more precise time boundary for relating to historical developments. For this reason, I believe, the Bible often focuses on legal enactments when dealing with historic time periods in prophecy. Viewed through the legal prism, the 538 event now stands as a true bookend to the 1798 event. To consider a legal framework of prophetic interpretation is not to suggest that the traditional view of military events and battles is irrelevant, but rather that the relevance of these events is primarily that of helping begin or end legal and governmental regimes. It offers a more unified, historically grounded, real-world interpretation of prophecy. And is this not an appropriate principle and focus for a Book and a God concerned less with force and coercion, and more with displays between forms of governance based on contrasting principles of love and power? Ernest R. Sandeen, The Roots of Fundamentalism (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978). 2 See Will Durant, The Age of Faith (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1950), pp. 108-110. 3 Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1911), p. 54. 4 Durant, p. 112. 5 Ibid., p. 109. 6 Ibid., p. 111. 7 Jean Carlos Zukowski, “The Role and Status of the Catholic Church in the Church-State Relationship Within the Roman Empire from A.D. 306 to 814” (PhD diss., Andrews University, 2009), p. 160. 8 Ibid., p. 114. 9 Constitution of the Roman Republic, translated from the Authentic Italian Edition (1798), is a “Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and of Citizens,” with a tabulated series of Articles of (1) Rights and (2) Duties, followed by the text of the Roman Constitution. (Original Title: Constituzione della Repubblica Italiana, adottata per acclamazione nei comizj nazionali in Lione, Anno I., 26 Gennajo 1802.) 10 Vigilius’ first year of rule under the Justinian Code would have been in 538. His sovereignty, as a practical matter, does not take effect until after the breaking of the siege in 538. Zukowski, p. 160. 1
Nicholas P. Miller, PhD, serves as professor of church history at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States.
Read more about What We Believe at www.adventist.org/en/beliefs/
Spirit of Prophecy
Look Heavenward Words of encouragement for the new year
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hey desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.” Hebrews 11:16. I wish you a happy new year. The old year with its burden of record has passed into eternity. Now let every thought, every feeling be that of remembrance of God’s love. Let us gather up one token after another. . . . HOPE FOR A BETTER HOME
The evidence we have of God’s care and love for us is expressed in the lessons Christ gave to His disciples upon the things in nature. . . . The eye is not to be fastened upon deformity, upon the curse, but upon the riches of the grace of Christ that has been provided so abundantly, that we may live in this world, and act our part in the great web of humanity, and yet not be of the world. As pilgrims, as strangers looking for the bright things of God, the joy that is set before us, seeking a city whose builder and maker is God, and by beholding the provisions made for us, the mansions Jesus has gone to prepare for us, talking of the blessed home, we forget the annoyances and the fretting cares of this life. We seem to breathe in the very atmosphere of that better, even the heavenly country. We are soothed, we are comforted; we are more than this, we are joyful in God. We could not know that gracious purposes of God toward us, but for the promises, for it is from them alone we learn what He has prepared for those who love Him. As the flowers in God’s wise economy are constantly drawing the properties from earth and air to develop into the pure and beautiful buds and flowers and give forth their fragrance to delight the senses, so shall it be with us. CATCHING A GLIMPSE
We draw from God’s promises all that peace, that comfort, that hope that will develop in us the fruits of peace, joy, and faith. And by bringing these promises into our own life we bring them always into the lives of others. Then let us appropriate these promises to ourselves. . . . They are like the precious flowers in the garden of God. They are to awaken our hope and expectation, and lead us to a firm faith and reliance upon God. They are to strengthen us in trouble and teach us precious lessons of trust in God. He in these precious promises draws back from eternity and gives us a glimpse of the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Let us then be quiet in God. Let us calmly trust in Him and praise Him that He has shown us such revelations of His will and purposes that we shall not build our hopes in this life but keep the eye upward to the inheritance of light and see and sense the amazing love of Jesus.—Letter 27, Jan. 1, 1886, to Dr. and Mrs. J. H. Kellogg.
Seventh-day Adventists believe that Ellen G. White (1827-1915) exercised the spiritual gift of prophecy during more than 70 years of public ministry. This excerpt was taken from The Upward Look (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1982), p. 15.
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Faith in Action
Refugees in Lebanon Global Mission is on the ground.
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s a child I lived for a few years in Beirut, Lebanon. For the next 35 years I never had the opportunity to return—not even for a visit. That all changed recently when I traveled to Beirut for Global Mission meetings to see some of the work that the Seventh-day Adventist Church has restarted in that region following a war that has dragged on for so long. Beirut has changed in a number of positive ways. Gone are the burned-out vehicles, the buildings pockmarked with bullet holes, and the cavernous wounds of mortar fire. Real glass can be found in the windows again, with no sandbags stacked in front of them. The nights were quiet. Instead of falling asleep to the rattle of machine guns and the exploding of rockets, I drifted off to the standard sounds of traffic
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and construction. On the negative side, the Adventist Church work in Lebanon and the Middle East in general still struggles to resume. During the war most Adventists in Lebanon emigrated to other parts of the world, leaving only a handful to continue the work after the war. THE CRISIS
In addition to the current war in Syria, Lebanon, which borders Syria, is dealing with a refugee crisis. No census data for Beirut has been available for many years, but it’s reasonable to assume that refugees may have doubled or even tripled the population of the city in recent times. While this is certainly a crisis for the hurting people who have lost their homes and have been forced to flee for their lives, it is also an opportunity for Adventists to show God’s love to a group
of people who have been living in a country totally resistant to the good news of the gospel. We have a limited time frame in which to touch as many lives as possible so that they can carry this good news back home with them whenever the war in Syria ends. A few people in Lebanon are taking advantage of this opportunity. When I arrived in Beirut, a taxi took me to the campus of Middle East University. I walked into the administration building just as dozens of smiling refugee families filed out. I stepped into the small auditorium to find out what was happening. In a few minutes a group of local Adventists together with missionaries from other countries gathered for a report on the first-ever seminar held for refugees. The seminar was organized by missionaries and Global Mission pioneers, who, while working with the refugees, had recognized the serious cases of depression that many of them faced as a result of their crises and decided to offer a seminar on the subject. They had no idea whether refugees would respond to the invitation, but to their surprise, entire families showed up and willingly shared their struggles. Since I had missed the seminar itself, I had to be content with listening to the missionaries who excitedly recounted how the Holy Spirit had led.
(Photo c. 1981) A rocket attack destroyed two cars just outside the fence from Beirut Overseas School and the Middle East and North Africa Union Mission office, which by then had closed and moved to Nairobi.
Photo: Howard Scoggins
WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW?
Apart from working one-on-one with refugee families, a number of Adventists are making an impact in the Bourj Hammoud section of Beirut at the Adventist Learning Center. This urban center of influence is a school for refugee children that offers free classes in both English and Arabic. I toured the center, which is located on the top level of an apartment building and offers English-learning classes for children. After staff worship the stairwell echoed with the voices of children as they excitedly flew up the stairs for school, making their way to the flat roof instead of their classes. Teachers stood at the doorway leading to the roof, slapping hands in greeting as the children ran to their places under an outside canopy. Once they were lined up by grade and in single file, they sang a rousing chorus of “God Is So Good,” prayed, and were released to their classrooms. They are fortunate to be in an actual school—and they know it. There is a long waiting list for enrollment because the current facility can accommodate only about 80 students. Since these children do not come from a Christian background, I asked if the school had any difficulty teaching Adventist beliefs. One teacher replied, “We are entirely open about what we teach. If someone doesn’t like it, they
don’t have to come. There are many who are ready to fill their spot.” The classes are all Bible-based; for example, the first graders are taught number recognition—one through seven—using the story of Creation. Receiving an education in English is considered to be a great gift among refugees, because a knowledge of English is thought to be the key to a better life. At the same time, however, since many families are completely illiterate, the school teaches children to read and write in their native Arabic, which further enhances their lives at home. MORE HELP IS NEEDED
The Adventist Learning Center project has been successful thanks to such dedicated leaders as Alexis Hurd-Shires, who has built the program from the ground up and continues to manage it on a daily basis. There are plans for expansion in other locations; however, this first school must deal with a move itself. The building that houses the school is slated to be demolished in about a year to make way for new buildings. Beirut is not an inexpensive city, and Hurd-Shires estimates that it will cost nearly US$100,000
just to make the move—something they are unable to do until they have the funding. “I’m not too concerned,” said Hurd-Shires. “God will provide, just as He has so far.” While money is always a challenge, the biggest problem the school and other projects in the Middle East and North Africa Union Mission face is the lack of people who are willing to help. Opportunities in this area of the world are boundless, but the people taking advantage of them are few. There is a dire need for devoted Seventh-day Adventists who are fluent in English and prepared to teach, as well as for those with the ability to learn Arabic and are willing to work with refugees and plant house churches among various groups. To learn more about the work of Global Mission, visit www.adventist mission.org/global-mission.
Jeff Scoggins is planning director for Global Mission, headquartered at the General Conference of Seventhday Adventists in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States.
Students attending the Adventist Learning Center meet first thing in the morning on the roof of their building to sing and pray before being dismissed for classes.
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Bible Questions Answered
The Reliable Gospel Record Q
Is the phrase “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” a later addition to Matthew 28:19?
A
Anti-Trinitarians use this argument to neutralize a damaging piece of biblical evidence that goes against their position. The short answer to your question is that this phrase is part of the original Greek text of Matthew. The argument is not historically reliable, making it difficult to understand why they still use it. 1. GREEK EVIDENCE
We have many Greek manuscripts of the Gospel of Matthew. The textual evidence is unquestionable: all the Greek manuscripts of Matthew include the phrase you quoted. In other words, it is part of the original text of the Gospel. Besides, all ancient translations of the New Testament also preserve the Greek reading. In order to question this evidence some have argued that the Greek quotations of Matthew 28:19 found in the Church Fathers, specifically in the writings of Eusebius of Caesarea (A.D. 263-339), do not include the Trinitarian phrase. The truth is that Eusebius quotes Matthew in different ways. It has been shown that in nine cases he writes, “Go and make disciples of all the nations”; 16 times, “Go and make disciples of all the nations in my name”; and five times he quotes the biblical text as we have it now in Matthew. The obvious conclusion is that Eusebius knew the long original Greek text of Matthew and occasionally omitted parts of the passage that were irrelevant to the point he was making. This was his common practice when quoting Scriptures. 2. HEBREW EVIDENCE
In order to argue that the Trinitarian formula is not original, reference is made to a Hebrew translation of Matthew that does not include the formula. It reads 26
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“Jesus drew near to them and said to them: To me has been given all power in heaven and earth. Go and (teach) them to carry out all the things which I have commanded you forever.” Several things ought to be said about this reading. First, this translation is a Jewish apologetic work, not a Christian one interspersed with anti-Catholic comments. Second, it is called Eben Bohan (“The Touchstone”), authored by Shem-Tob ben-Isaac ben-Shaprut in 1380. Its reading of Matthew 28:19 is not supported by any Greek manuscript. Third, the translation omits many other sections of Matthew. Finally, notice that it also omits the Gospel Commission. In other words, it is not a reliable witness to the original text of Matthew. 3. CRITICAL INTERPRETATION
Critical scholarship argues that the baptismal formula found in our passage is not original in the sense that it did not come from Jesus Himself. The higher-critical approach to the Gospels seeks to find in the text the original words of Jesus and differentiate them from what Matthew put in His mouth. Since, according to them, in Matthew Jesus never addresses the question of baptism and evangelizing the world, and that there is not much in the Gospel about the Father and the Holy Spirit, Jesus would not have said what Matthew claims He said. They infer that the baptismal formula was not what Jesus taught the disciples to do, but what the Matthean community was practicing. Matthew simply legitimized the practice of the church by placing it in the words of Jesus. This interpretation, based on the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation, is inconsistent with what the biblical text explicitly states and is fundamentally based on speculations impossible to prove. The canonical form of Matthew 28:19 is totally reliable and belongs to the original text of Matthew.
Angel Manuel Rodríguez lives in Texas, United States, after a career serving the church as a pastor, professor, and theologian.
Health & Wellness
Helping Refugees Does the church provide ways? I am a teenager with a caring family and a good school. I wish to pursue a career in health care. The serious refugee crisis in some parts of the world distresses me, and I want to make a difference. Can I serve in such settings through my church?
T
he refugee and displaced persons situation is indeed at crisis level. The child refugee crisis is at the worst level since the end of World War II. It is estimated that nearly 50 million children have been displaced and uprooted because of war, conflict, and the consequences of poverty. Among the areas most affected are Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and South Sudan. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that approximately one person is displaced by force every two seconds. Some 68.5 million people have been forcibly displaced worldwide,1 and more than a third of this number are refugees. Numerous challenges face large numbers of people being moved from one place to another, and many are health-related. Disease and death occur commonly under such circumstances, and many of these casualties are from preventable causes, such as inadequate nutrition and such infectious diseases as measles, pneumonia, diarrhea, and malaria. Accidents and trauma add to the difficulties of life as a refugee. In addressing these challenges, priorities include providing shelter, adequate and nutritious food, clean water, sanitation, immunization programs, and general health services. These services are provided by receiving countries, the UNHCR, and other humanitarian organizations, including disaster relief agencies and faith-based organizations. The Seventh-day Adventist Church works in these difficult and challenging settings, largely through the Adventist Development and Relief Photo: ADRA International
Agency (ADRA)2 and organizations such as AdventistHelp.3 ADRA has been very active in serving refugees and internally displaced people around the world. We are thankful to have such a presence making a difference, one person at a time. So yes, you can serve refugees and displaced people through your church. ADRA and the Adventist Church have opportunities for service and need young, energetic, committed individuals like you to extend the healing and caring ministry of Jesus to all. We have witnessed firsthand the gratitude of those served. Money cannot buy such an experience—eyes and smiles expressing appreciation beyond words. We know that we are coming closer to Jesus in our daily walk with Him when the things that break His heart break ours. When Jesus saw the crowds, He was moved with compassion (Matt. 9:36). As you take needed time for education and preparation for service, remember that you have been saved to serve. Seize opportunities to give of yourself—your time, your prayers, even some of your hard-earned money—to support these noble efforts. And did you know that there is a reciprocal payback benefit to those who serve? People who volunteer and serve others have less anxiety and depression, and better general health. Serving and volunteering even boost immune functions. What wonderful rewards, and just for doing the right thing. 1 2 3
www.unhcr.org/en-us/figures-at-a-glance.html adra.org www.adventisthelp.org
Peter N. Landless, a board-certified nuclear cardiologist, is director of Adventist Health Ministries at the General Conference. Zeno L. Charles-Marcel, a board-certified internist, is an associate director of Adventist Health Ministries at the General Conference.
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God Sounds Like Bert T “May I Tell You a Story?” BY DICK DUERKSEN
“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope, for then there is room for more of God and His rule.”
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he road to Bodie is a thin gray line wandering drunkenly east of Lake Tahoe in northern California, United States. Bodie, elevation 2,554 meters, exists because in 1859 wandering miners discovered gold beneath the sagebrush. They shared the news and quickly the desert blossomed into a short-lived city of nearly 7,000, sporting two churches and 65 saloons. Today Bodie is an empty “ghost town,” a collection of buildings in “arrested decay,” that has been designated a California state park. Bodie’s a great place for getting lost. In summer you and 200,000 other visitors stumble past humps of sagebrush and families of rattlesnakes, all to see buildings that look like the owners will be back any minute. In winter Bodie is empty, buried beneath tons of blowing snow, home only to two pistol-packing state park rangers. *** My first visit to Bodie was on a graysky day in February, and I had forgotten about winter. I went, blindly following the advice of my biology professor friend, Don Hemphill, who said, “Dick, you’ve got to go to Bodie. You’ll love it!” Don’s dad had operated a freight company in Bodie, so I figured I could trust his advice. Don hadn’t told me about winter in Bodie.
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Four of us were in our car, happily driving home from a Bible conference on a road that meandered near Bodie. When we saw the sign “Bodie 10 miles,” Bert and I, and our wives, Donna and Brenda, chose to follow Don’s advice and visit the ghost town. Our map showed a thin road squiggling up the hills toward Bodie. The map was right, but we had forgotten about winter. Five miles later our car slipped in the snow, broke through thick ice, and stopped dead in a freezing stream that crosses the Bodie road at the base of a steep mesa. It was too far to walk back to the main road without freezing our feathers, and it was still another five miles up and over the foreboding mesa to Bodie. Snow began to sift from the darkening clouds, and we thought about winter. We prayed. We prayed hard. Our wives chose to stay in the car. The engine was running. Brenda was practicing her Spanish, Donna was knitting a blanket, and the car heater was keeping both of them warm. Bert and I shrugged into our down jackets, tied the leather laces on our hiking boots, pulled on warm gloves, and began walking uphill— hoping there would be a California park ranger with a phone in Bodie. We prayed together, and Brenda and Donna waved encouragement from the safety of the car as we promised we’d be Photo: Dick Duerksen
“right back,” to “save” them. That was 10:40 Sunday morning. Sometime after 3:00 p.m. Bert and I realized we were lost—walking circles in rapidly-falling knee-deep snow. We were going nowhere slowly—encased in a blinding blizzard that made it impossible to see our hands in front of our faces. Our toes froze into blocks of wood. Our eyelashes stitched together with huge icicle zippers. Our gloves, jackets, jeans, and boots all failed the Bodie blizzard test. We were freezing to death. *** “I can’t go on,” I mumbled, and fell into the snow. Bert heard, and collapsed beside me. We prayed for our wives, thanked God for good lives, shook hands, and “died.” Freezing is a pretty painless way to go. But God had remembered winter and His promised resurrection. “Dick! Get up!” Bert shouted into my ear. I sat up, flinging snow in every direction and looking straight into Bert’s amazed eyes. “Thanks for waking me up,” he said. “I didn’t,” I answered. “I woke up when you shouted for me to get up!’” “No. You just shouted for me to get up!” “No, you did!” “No, you did!” Awe ended our argument, and we sat together in snowy silence. God had awakened both of us at exactly the same moment. I know what God sounds like. He sounds like Bert! And Bert? He thinks God sounds like me! We stood then, side by side in the driving blizzard, praying prayers of thanksgiving, and pleading for God to lead us to safety. After “Amen,” we linked arms and shambled along behind a team of angels into Bodie’s empty Main Street. Inside the Bodie Café we saw a 150-year-old stove, newspapers, and a can of kerosene. I broke a window, so we could build a fire in the stove. *** Twenty minutes later, as our toes were beginning to thaw, a young ranger showed
up and marched us to headquarters. “Just wait till the chief ranger sees you,” he mumbled. “You broke a window. The old man will be angry!” The old man came quickly, enraged by our presence and ready to push the whole power of California law upon us. We sat on the floor, as close to the heater as we could, ready to accept our punishment. “Don’t you know it’s a felony to break windows on state property? Why are you here anyway? Don’t you know Bodie is closed in the winter?” “We know that now,” I offered, “but our friend Don Hemphill said we ought to visit Bodie. We didn’t think about winter.” The old man unwound until he was sitting on the floor beside us. “You know Don Hemphill?” he exclaimed. “He’s a great friend of mine. Did you know . . . ?” The ranger forgot about the broken window as he told story after story about our mutual friend Don. When he finally took a deep breath, we told him that our wives were down the road knitting and practicing Spanish. A couple calls later he had a tow truck on the way to rescue the women, and a motel for them to stay in for the night. Since it was now dark, Bert and I had to stay in the ghost town and wait until morning to go down the hill in the old man’s giant snow machine. “I guess God helps you even when you do stupid stuff!” the old man said. We prayed thanks over dinner that evening. We prayed thanks most of the night. And we prayed thanksgiving loud and long when we met our wives in the morning! “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope,” Jesus taught on Galilee’s hillside, “with less of you there is more of God and his rule” (Matt. 5:3, Message).* * Texts credited to Message are from The Message. Copyright ©1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Publisher The Adventist World, an international periodical of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The General Conference, Northern Asia-Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists®, is the publisher. Executive Editor/Director of Adventist Review Ministries Bill Knott International Publishing Manager Chun, Pyung Duk Adventist World Coordinating Committee Si Young Kim, chair; Yukata Inada; German Lust; Chun, Pyung Duk; Han, Suk Hee; Lyu, Dong Jin Associate Editors/Directors, Adventist Review Ministries Lael Caesar, Gerald A. Klingbeil, Greg Scott Editors based in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA Sandra Blackmer, Stephen Chavez, Costin Jordache, Wilona Karimabadi Editors based in Seoul, Korea Chun, Pyung Duk; Park, Jae Man; Kim, Hyo-Jun Operations Manager Merle Poirier Editors-at-Large/Advisors Mark A. Finley, John M. Fowler, E. Edward Zinke Financial Manager Kimberly Brown Management Board Si Young Kim, chair; Bill Knott, secretary; Chun, Pyung Duk; Karnik Doukmetzian; Han, Suk Hee; Yutaka Inada; Gerald A. Klingbeil; Joel Tompkins; Ray Wahlen; Ex-officio: Juan Prestol-Puesán; G. T. Ng; Ted N. C. Wilson Art Direction and Design Types & Symbols To Writers: We welcome unsolicited manuscripts. Address all editorial correspondence to 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, MD 20904-6600, U.S.A. Editorial office fax number: (301) 680-6638 E-mail: worldeditor@gc.adventist.org Web site: www.adventistworld.org Unless otherwise indicated, all Bible references are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Texts credited to NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. Unless otherwise noted, all prominent photos are © Getty Images 2019. Adventist World is published monthly and printed simultaneously in Korea, Brazil, Indonesia, Australia, Germany, Austria, Argentina, Mexico, South Africa, and the United States. Vol. 15, No. 1
Dick Duerksen, a pastor and storyteller living in Portland, Oregon, United States, is known around the world as “an itinerant pollinator of grace.”
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Growing Faith
Fun-filled pages for younger ages
What Are You Afraid Of?
BY KIM PECKHAM
T
he other day I was scared of a grocery bag. Really. The bag was blowing across the lawn, and when I first caught a glimpse of this thing coming toward me I thought a small animal was about to attack me. It was embarrassing. Especially when I thought about my friend Sam. Sam is a new Adventist. He has been in horrifying situations, but he never seems to get scared. I believe in Jesus, yet I can be scared of anything! The Bible says, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, 30
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I will fear no evil” (Ps. 23:4, NIV). I can’t even walk to the car without fear. One day we went to visit friends at a cabin in the mountains. We had a great visit. Our friends showed us where they had seen a bear. Night covered the mountain when my wife and I left to go home. A trail wound through the dark woods to our car. We talked as we walked, but we talked loudly. Then we decided to sing. We sang as if our lives depended on it because we remembered the bears. We hoped the noise would scare them off before
they could smell how delicious we were to eat! Christians have nothing to be afraid of. But what we know and what we feel are two different things. Let’s talk about a boy who finds a snake. If it’s poisonous, the boy should know to leave it alone. But if he knows it is harmless, he may catch it to play with it. His level of fear depends on what he knows. Now when the boy’s mother finds the snake in their bathtub, her reaction may be different! We can unlearn fear. At least what we know. This is when we Illustration: Xuan Le
learn that God can be trusted to keep us safe. But believing in Jesus doesn’t wipe away all fears. Fear is part of the sin problem. Which brings me back to my friend Sam. Last year, his wife Laura had to go to the hospital. The doctor gave him bad news. He looked at his dear wife lying asleep in her bed, and he felt fear as he had never felt it before. Sam sat beside Laura and held her hand. There was a time Sam would not have known how to deal with this fear. But his faith gave him a clue. While he held
her hand he prayed and prayed and prayed. Until the day Laura was well enough to come home. When it comes to fear, Christians have a special advantage. We experience moments of grace that reduce our fears. We have prayer. We also have a hope that helps us see beyond our fear. But all of us—even those as brave as Sam—are waiting for when there will be nothing to be afraid of.
Adapted from KidsView, April 2017.
Bible Treasure “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil” (Ps. 23:4. NIV). AdventistWorld.org January 2019
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Let those who have ears, listen!
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